Tag Archives: customer relationships

As an entrepreneur, relationships are some of the most valuable assets you’ll ever create. There are the relationships that you form with your customers, with your suppliers and with other small business owners. . You won’t find a column for “relationships” on your balance sheet but you should always be working on growing this asset no matter what.

When you focus your marketing activities in the following three steps, you will be working towards building strong relationships with customers and potential customers. By becoming an authority in your industry, building connections and bringing great value to the table, you’ll find yourself with a stable of strong business relationships in no time.

1. Establish Credibility in Your Industry

The first step is to position yourself as an authority in your industry. Don’t be afraid to highlight your credentials! Take advantage of inbound content marketing and create an informative blog, write a newsletter, and learn to use social media effectively. Every one of the aforementioned avenues are great places to build, grow, and nurture an audience.

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When it comes to customer relationship trends, if you want to succeed in today’s market you don’t just want to make the sale. You need to be able to cultivate a long-term partnership with your customers. Too often, businesses spend the bulk of their time chasing “new” sales, all the while failing to understand that current customers can be a good source of additional business. As a consultant, I often come across companies making the mistake of not managing customer relationships. When I survey a few of their current customers, I find they only know about a single product or service being offered by the company. And, if they hear from the company after the sale, it’s usually to only to try to make another sale. This results in a revolving door of customers, which is often quite expensive for the brand.

Below are some tips to help manage and cultivate your customer relationships.

Connect with Your Customers

Connect with your customers on a level which supersedes the business of the transaction. Get to know them and develop a rapport. If customers feel a connection with you, they will begin to trust you and your recommendations. Always be honest and don’t oversell your product. Instead, demonstrate to them that you are not just in it to make a sale; but you want to earn their long-term business.

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A business is a business regardless of its size. But when it comes to marketing, big companies are able to splurge more on their marketing tools while small businesses have a much smaller pool of finances to be resourceful in. Limited resources shouldn’t be seen as a challenge – it’s actually an opportunity to be more creative with how you market your business.

Lacking some creative juices for marketing strategies? Worry no more with these budget friendly marketing tips! Continue reading →